Exergaming Goes Mainstream - Erin Hoffman
The XRtainment Zone's primary principles rely on RPE, or a patient's rate of perceived exertion. With exergaming, patients do not perceive their rate of exertion to be as high as they do with regular physical exercise, with the end result that they will exercise harder and longer in an 'exertainment' format than they would at a regular gym. Health professionals are beginning to realize the keystone to patient motivation: by putting fun first, patients are motivated to participate longer and more intensely than they would on a regimen that might offer more health-per-buck, with a net effect that activities that emphasize fun actually result in greater patient exertion rate and greater long term program adherence. Another of the XRtainment Zone’s key features in contrast to many commonly held perceptions of exergaming is the sheer diversity of its activities. When Autodesk laid the foundations for the field in the early eighties with their interactive exercise bikes and virtual racquetball, and even through Dance Dance Revolution’s rise as an exercise program, the primary criticism of exergaming systems by participants has been their lack of variety. In addition to dance pads, GameBikes, and EyeToy aerobic games in various flavors, the XRtainment Zone boasts a variety of more unusual exertainment machines including 3Kick, Makoto, Sportwall, Jackie Chan Run, Xavix Run, ATV Fury 3 Tag, Trazer Fusion, EyeToy Kung Fu, and Gamebike variants powered by hand and arm exercise. Other non-electronic game formats are also included, such as short competitive sprints with an object-oriented objective (race for the beanbag), employing basic elements of interactive game design alongside their more technology-based brethren.
By their nature, individual exertainment games also adjust to the specific abilities of the player by keeping track of previous scores. Much of the engaging challenge aspect of exergaming – a challenge that compels previously exercise-averse kids to play continuously and not want to leave the Zone when their time is up – comes from the participant's desire to beat their own personal best score. This principle, long a driver of game development, pushes a patient to continuously greater physical achievement at a pace that is custom fit to their own abilities. The Zone also focuses on community outreach. In December Medina's group held a charity exergaming tournament that not only motivated its participants to heroic exercise levels but collected toys for the Boys and Girls Club of Redlands. Over 60 kids competed in events from Gamebike races to acrobatic virtual snowboarding to a catch-all “pentathlon” of five sequential exergaming events that formed the SuperXRGamer competition and yielded the greatest award. Winners in each event also received trophies as they would at a traditional athletic event. For many of these kids, the opportunity to excel and be awarded in physical fields sparks a thrill of competition and achievement they are prevented from attaining in a traditional physical education program; a thrill that, Medina hopes, will lead to genuine lifestyle change and a lasting enjoyment of health and exercise that they will carry into adulthood.
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